#Geno's painting was an experiment at more detailed backgrounds

[missd476]

I had the urge to try watercolors again. Even if I'm not good at it.

[gofancyninjaworld]

Initial conditions: Blust! and OPM

While Yusuke Murata is much better known as an illustrator per excellence, he has written some stories and non-fiction pieces.  One of his works is Blust! a part-comedy, part-science fiction manga featuring a curry-powered soldier of fortune. It was published in Weekly Shonen Jump #22-23 in 2009 as a one shot. You can read it here and I highly recommend it. 

Why read?  Well, other than being a shortish (51 pages) and funny read, it also gives one an insight into the sort of story Murata likes writing, the way he approaches character and has some really good relevance to One-Punch Man.  Put briefly, it turns out that OPM is just the sort of story that Murata loves to read and that Genos is in really good hands. 

Adventure ho!

Blust! definitely does not take itself too seriously: Murata loves the idea of the odd twist to create humour, so you have a ridiculous village where just about everyone is a secret operative available for hire.  The titular character, Honozaka Kai, (nicknamed Blust) has a problem in that thanks to his failure to rescue a scientist, he and his handler are now owe their client a significant amount of money, even though the fiasco left him with cybernetic arms that fire nuclear blasts... provided he’s eaten enough curry. 

What it does take extremely seriously are references. It becomes obvious from the very first page that Murata does his homework in both visual and technological references that he wants to use.  Geographical settings, backgrounds, weather, vehicles, weapons, materials and the way they respond when broken, all of it has been meticulously researched and comes across right away. 

The plot itself is a relatively straightforward action adventure, but it’s well-thought out. It’s a bit too much story for the number of pages he had and so you get more exposition and a pace that could totally have used another two instalments to fully bring out the ideas that Murata definitely had in mind, but it works.  A short self-contained story is not the place to try out complex characterisation and Murata doesn’t try. However, he does create good characters who never carry the idiot ball.  In drawing style, you can see influences from his work in Eyeshield 21 and from Toriyama. He puts a lot of emphasis on good facial expression and good movement. 

The appeal that One-Punch Man held for Murata is obvious right away. A wide-ranging action story that’s clever, funny and doesn’t take itself too seriously?  It’s right up his street.  Of course OPM has some more serious satirical elements to it and overall is a closer study of the human condition than Blust could ever be but its spirit is very much kindred. 

You promised there’d be cyborgs

Which brings me onto the next thing: Cyborgs!  It turns out that Murata loves himself some cyborgs and has put a lot of thought into realising them, which has been all to the benefit of OPM.   Let’s introduce Major Bah Mou, our major baddie and envious cyborg.  Is he not glorious?

He and Kai have a short but intense battle which the latter wins with the sort of devastating common sense that’s both a perfect fit for OPM and a great illustration of the way Murata thinks about cyborgs.  Major Bah Mou’s neck was broken because he’d had his arms grafted on without investing the major additional work required to adequately modify and reinforce the rest of his body. 

This incomplete workmanship contrasts beautifully with the very heavy back armoring that Genos features and its manifested consequence of turning what should be a horrifying crash into an annoyance.  Because OPM has more space and time to develop ideas, Murata doesn’t have to tell us these things: he can just show them. 

Something that I also greatly appreciated is his acknowledgement of pain.  Part of Major Bah Mou’s terrible attitude is the chronic pain he lives with as a result of his hasty surgery. 

 The humanity of Dr. Kuseno shows when we see that he gives thought to the pain that Genos can experience when he puts him under general anaesthesia for major procedures.  It goes without saying that he’d never countenance Genos suffering chronically.  Seeing the roots of of how Murata thinks about and realises cyborgs is quite exciting.  

Murata puts the technological gloss on the ideas that ONE raises and does so without any information dumps or telling, just pure showing. But he’s been thinking about how to realise cyborgs and what issues they may experience for a long time.   Not just Genos, but all the other cyborgs we see in OPM, like Drive Knight and Jet Nice Guy, have the benefit of an illustrator who thinks carefully about them. 

Conclusion

Wrapping up, reading Blust! is a great way to understand better how and why Murata and ONE work so well together.  They’re both working on the kind of story they like -- big ideas, great action, funny without being farcical.  Murata brings a lot of detail to the big picture that ONE paints.  And even as OPM has grown more serious and considered, there’s still a light touch that’s all to the better. 

Now go read Blust! 

[rayadraws]

Experiences customizing my Obitsu 11

I’m writing this post because from what I’ve seen, there is not a load of information out there on Obitsuroids, at least not that I’ve found and/or in English. I don’t know a lot myself, but I do have a little bit of personal experience now, as well as searching around the web to learn more. In this post, I will give a bit of background and share my experiences customizing my first OB11 body.

My Little Borg is a Genos nendoroid head on an Obitsu 11 (sometimes shortened down to OB11) ball jointed doll (BJD) body. This doll is often used together with Nendoroid heads, creating a hybrid doll referred to as an Obitsuroid. OB11 weren’t specifically created for nendos, so you need to customize the body a bit to fit, but it’s not difficult.

OB11 bodies come in three colours, which are called White, Natural and Black. The White body is usually recommended for nendos, as its skin colour is the closest to most nendos. For Genos, I used the black one, which is a shiny black. It can be a bit harder to find than the others. I purchased mine via a store called Toymalaysia through Etsy, though I have also seen this model on Amazon - but for a higher price. I haven’t been able to find it on eBay, though I have seen the other models on there.

I had seen some people that had painted their OB11 to look more cyborg-y and I wanted to try that as well, so I looked around the web for advice. Most people recommend a sealant called Mr. Super Clear. I purchased the “matt” version, although if you’re doing a cyborg body, you could probably also go with the glossy (in fact, in retrospect, I think it would have looked very nice on Genos’ body!). But if you intend to customize any faces, the matt is recommended as it looks more natural on “skin”.

I acquired acrylic metallic paints and also used a black Copic marker, as well as a gold and silver Sharpie, and a white Posca pen.

The smart thing to do is to thin your acrylics with water and paint many layers to avoid a rough/uneven surface, which I didn’t do because I learnt about this after the fact (also I am very impatient so no guarantee I would have done it anyway...). But the “texture” doesn’t bother me too much, since I used the acrylics for the metal parts, which might have a bit of “wear and tear” and a rough surface anyway. I used the Sharpies on the edges and small details, which worked very nicely, as I’m less confident with a brush on small details. I likewise used the Copic to clean up uneven edges. Finally I used a white Posca pen (which is a type of liquid paint pen) to draw in Genos’ pale spine.

In the middle of the process - you can see on the feet that I had to use several layers before the paint would cover an area completely

When I was happy with what I had, I sprayed the body with Mr. Super Clear. I might have used too much I think, because it got a little thick in places as it dried (after running down the sides a bit). It was interesting to see just how well it worked - it made the (unpainted) black parts look noticeably less glossy than they had been, while the silver parts are still shiny, though less so than before I applied the sealant.

Unfortunately! I noticed that Mr. Super Clear did not get along with... well, I can’t say for sure if it was the Sharpies or the Copic - or both - but either way I noticed afterwards that the colours had run a bit and now looked more uneven than they did before I sprayed it on, pretty noticeably so. Same with the Posca. It’s not the end of the world - I’ve been using my Sharpies to fix it up again, but it’s something that is worth knowing, especially if you intend to use these type of markers on something more sensitive and/or detailed, like a face plate. I did not know beforehand that this might happen, especially since this sealant is so heavily recommended everywhere. It did not appear to affect the acrylics at all.

All in all it was a fun learning experience and while the result isn’t perfect, it will work for my purposes! I learnt a lot!! And I do have a second black body, so I may one day attempt to customize that one too... maybe to use Genos’ newer body from the manga...

This is what the final result looks like:

If you compare Genos’ neck in this photo with his arm in the top photo above, you can see how much less glossy even the black parts look like after the application of Mr. Super Clear!

And here is what he looks like once fully dressed: